Day 2 – Elk City OK to Tijeras NM

Today, like yesterday, was supposed to be an uneventful day. Eh, not so much.

After a quick breakfast of cereal, and a couple good cups of coffee, we set off. As hoped, we left the campground in Elk City at 8:30 a.m. It was good sleeping in until 6:15! That’s an hour more sleep than I normally get.

From Elk City, the road generally climbs throughout the rest of Oklahoma, and Texas, and into New Mexico. Because of that, we discovered we’d not be able to keep our pace at 70 mph as hoped. The truck literally drank gasoline at an alarming rate! We stopped far more often than normal.

The first 6 hours of the drive WERE uneventful… slow going, but only moderate traffic.

The problem began shortly after passing through Santa Rosa, NM. Scott was driving during this stretch. Passing a semi as we rounded a bend on I40, all of a sudden we were hit by a sudden sharp wind gust. The trailer fish tailed dramatically, and for several seconds (probably just 1 or 2, but it sure seemed like more!) I wasn’t sure we’d end up on the road in one piece. Scott’s masterful driving saved us, quite literally!

We pulled off at the next exit, though there were no services, to check the trailer and it’s connections… and to calm down. I took over driving from there. For the next 100 miles or so until we got to the plains east of Tijeras, I fought an incredible crosswind. I had to slow from our 63 mph down to about 50 to keep the vehicle in control.

But, we’re here now! We got in about 4:30. Set up takes us about a half hour, then we drove down to Albuquerque to get some groceries and supplies. We’re at the Turquoise Trail Campgrounds. We’ll spend 2 nights here. Tomorrow we plan on visiting several ruins in the area. Those tours should provide some interesting photos. But here’s one to whet the appetite! It’s from the front of our trailer looking north. You can’t really tell, but we’re in some mountains, at about 7,200 feet. We’re in a little cut in the mountains, and the hills on all sides pretty much obscure our view of the mountains themselves.

One Response to "Day 2 – Elk City OK to Tijeras NM"

I am SO GLAD you two are safe after what you described! Good going, Scott!!! Looks beautiful and wish I was there. All of us had such a wonderful time meeting up together in Albuquerque in late June 2007 on our way to MCC General Conference in Scottsdale. It was a great trip.

Sure look forward to hearing more news tomorrow — stories of all the ruins you will be seeing!